Jesus’ Power to Forgive Sins

Luke 5:17-26

Several weeks ago, during our Resurrection Sunday service, we walked through something called, “The Roman’s Road.” The Roman’s Road lays out the Gospel (or good news) of Jesus Christ. The good news must always begin with the bad, as we have discussed before—that we are all of us sinners in need of a Savior (Romans 3:23).

The good news comes in knowing, that through Jesus Christ, ALL our sins (past, present, and future) can be forgiven—truly and fully forgiven and is something Scripture teaches us

Psalm 103:11–12 “For as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.”

Ezekiel 33:11 “Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’”

Ezekiel 33:14–16 “Again, when I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ if he turns from his sin and does what is lawful and right, if the wicked restores the pledge, gives back what he has stolen, and walks in the statutes of life without committing iniquity, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of his sins which he has committed shall be remembered against him; he has done what is lawful and right; he shall surely live.”

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

However, do we really believe it?

It can be hard at times to fully understand and grasp that God can and does truly and fully forgive our sins. The enemy surely wants you to doubt that and live in uncertainty.

The depravity that some fall in their sin can at times leave a person questioning if God would or even could forgive all they’ve done.

The struggle to surrender, “sins which so easily ensnare,” those pet sins that are so hard to shake, can at times create uncertainty that God would continue to forgive them

The weight and bondage sin brings, can leave a person so bound, forgiveness seems like a foreign concept to them

We are tangible people—meaning we like to see things, experience things, handle things, in order to know somethings true. So when we get to topics like faith and come to verses like, Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,” we stumble and hesitate—b/c Scripture is teaching us something contrary to our nature.

The account of Jesus healing the paralytic is as much about faith as it is about the power of Christ to forgive sins. Why? Because faith—in the power of Christ, in what Christ has accomplished thru the cross and resurrection, is how sins are forgiven, so to not believe that, reveals a lack of faith and stuck in sin you remain.

Faith is not always easy, b/c it demands self-denial—that we give up control;

Faith is to be active & demonstrative—never assumptive or stagnant;

Faith is the confident belief and dependence in Jesus Christ, trusting in the promises of His Word and what it can accomplish in a person’s life.

May our prayer be—as we unfold this account of four friends who faithfully bring their paralytic friend to Jesus, that we will be challenged to examine our faith, asking God to remove doubt’s, fears, or uncertainties that might exist, in order to live a more courageous, unashamed life of faith in Jesus Christ

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I. (v.17) Setting and Setup (What’s happening)

Luke 5:17 “Now it happened on a certain day, as He was teaching, that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was present to heal them.”

(CONTEXT)

A committee of Pharisees

Pharisees, in Jesus’s day,

Prided themselves in following the law to a “T”—so much so, they even created laws the Lord never intended

Prided themselves in following Jewish culture and knowing and keeping the ceremonies and traditions

Practicing these things to make themselves look better than others—even going so far as to pray in public, so others would hear them (Matthew 6:5)

Focused on creating the best self-image they could, so much so, they missed seeing Jesus

Pharisees were a group of people Jesus spoke against during His earthly ministry;

He told people not to do what they do:

Matthew 23:3–7 “Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do. For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi.’”

He labeled them as hypocrites

Matthew 23:13 ““But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.”

He labeled them as blind guides

Matthew 23:16 ““Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it.’”

He taught they only cared about what others saw on the outside

Matthew 23:25–26 ““Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.”

He compared them to whitewashed tombs

Matthew 23:27 ““Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.”

(ANYONE HERE WANT TO BE A PHARISEE?)

The committee was “sitting by”

This group of Pharisees were not there to participate in serving or being a part of ministry, they were merely there to investigate, observe, and critique Jesus Christ

“…and the power of the Lord was present to heal them.”

This simply, but boldly means, Jesus didn’t flinch:

He knew His purpose and continued right on ministering

He knew His purpose and refused to let those who just “sat by,” criticizing His ministry, affect was He was doing

He was immovable in His message and call

II. (v.18-20) The Necessary Approach for Forgiveness of Sins

Luke 5:18–20 “Then behold, men brought on a bed a man who was paralyzed, whom they sought to bring in and lay before Him. And when they could not find how they might bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the housetop and let him down with his bed through the tiling into the midst before Jesus. When He saw their faith, He said to him, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.””

(CONTEXT)

(How these men approached Jesus Christ teach us a valuable lesson on how we are to approach Jesus)

They sought help

The paralyzed man knew

His condition and knew that he needed the help of Jesus

He was unable to help himself and needed the help of others to get to Jesus, so he sought the help of believing friends—friends who believed the same thing about Jesus as he did.

The man’s friends

As this man’s friends, they were aware of his condition and that he needed help

When the man came to the point where he asked for help, they obliged…they knew they were unable to provide their friend forgiveness, but they knew Who could

They believed and had confidence in Jesus’ power to forgive sins and to heal people (especially their friend)

Picture the boldness and confidence of their faith: to get the man to Jesus, would be inconvenient and difficult

He was bedridden

He would have to be picked up and carried while on his bed

He would have to be carried through the streets of the town, amongst the large crowds who had gathered

The boldness and confidence of their faith in Jesus was the very kind of desperation and belief necessary for forgiveness and healing, and further?

Jesus was watching all of this unfold right in front of Him

They persisted despite difficulty and opposition

Remember the crowds—they were large/overwhelming/consuming—encroaching in and around Jesus

It would have been easy for these men to say,

“Well, there’s no way to get to Jesus friend, we are just gonna have to turn around and go back home.”

“Jesus looks like He’s too busy to worry about healing you.”

With the crowds too large to get through to Jesus, they went around the side/back of the house, climbed on the roof, removed portions of the roof, and used ropes to lower the man down (they came prepared to do what was necessary)

They sought forgiveness—how this scene points us to see this:

A question may arise at this point in Scripture: Why did Jesus forgive the man’s sins, when it looks as though the man was seeking physical healing? A couple of things:

God’s healing of this man’s life and our lives, involves more than just healing broken bones brokenness, it involves healing our broken relationships—with God and with others

I believe this actions of this man and his friends prove he was seeking forgiveness. We must remember, the words of asking for Jesus to forgive us are a reflection of our heart—and as we’ve stated before, this is where God looks

This was also seen in the account of the sinful woman in Luke 7:36-50—no where in this account do you read the woman “asking” verbally for forgiveness-it’s her actions that reveal the posture of her heart

Now, to this man:

First, this man was paralyzed and could not walk. He was so ill his friends had to take him to see Jesus, then cut a hole in someone’s house and lower him to Jesus

Second, it was the belief in that day that sin has brought this upon the man. The disciples question regarding a blind man in John 9 helps shows us this:

John 9:1–2 “Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?””

(While it’s true some foolish/sinful decisions could have resulted in this man’s paralysis, not all sickness/diseases are brought upon by personal sin, rather they are due to the sinful nature of the world)

What needs to be seen here is the man’s mind/attitude: His mind was upon both his sin (as the cause) and his physical condition, and he desired for Jesus to heal both.

What Jesus saw was faith; He saw

“Their faith”—this means, not only the faith of the man’s friends, but the faith of the man himself

The faith of the friends played a huge role in this man’s sins being forgiven

Faith that believed and persisted against all kinds of obstacles

A crucial lesson we must remember in seeking out forgiveness for our sins

What Jesus did

He, Himself—forgave the man’s sins; this was/is critical to understand

He didn’t say, “Man, God forgives your sins,” Jesus was saying, “Man, I forgive your sins.”

(CONNECTION-YOU AND ME)

It starts with us:

We must, each of us, realize that sin has the capacity to paralyze us—to bind us and hold us down, with a yoke we cannot remove on our own. Sin can make us feel paralyzed with

Fear and doubt

Shame and guilt

Anxiety and worry

Chaos and condemnation

We must then come to terms that we are “poor in spirit,” that we can do nothing to heal ourselves of our spiritual paralysis, that we need the help of Jesus Christ—His grace, mercy, and power to forgive our sins

Matthew 5:3 ““Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

We must then place ourselves/expose ourselves to the Gospel, which leads us to the cross, where Jesus died to usher in forgiveness of our sins, and their we place our lives down.

This can often times involve others:

While salvation is a person’s confession b/t them and the Lord, there are times where a person will need others to

Encourage them and guide them to seek out the forgiveness of Jesus Christ

Come alongside them and be compassionate towards them, so they might seek out the love of Christ

Teach them and instruct them on what confession and repentance are and looks like and what it means to surrender.

Our belief must be bold, confident, and persistent in the power of Jesus to heal us and forgive our sins—because not only does our sinfulness run deep, so do distractions.

The enemy’s goal is to keep you distracted from coming to Christ. He knows that as long as a person stays lost in sin, or deceived to try and fix themselves, the “risk” as he would call it, of them coming to God is greatly reduced.

The distractions of this world are many—and we don’t have to look very far

You will find distractions in passing pleasures of sin and things of instant gratification

You will find distractions in systems created for man to make a name for themselves, to seek applause for themselves.

You will find distractions in yourself:

Our own selfish desires and wants tempt us away

James 1:14 “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.”

Divided minds from fears, worries, and anxieties can keep us distracted

Sinful pasts which have left us full of regret, guilt, and shame can keep us away/distracted..something for which Paul battled with:

Philippians 3:13 “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,”

Our belief must possess the right attitudes:

Persistence—see Bartimaeus

Mark 10:48“Then many warned him to be quiet; but he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!””

Right convictions: Conviction to flee worldly things and to “apprehend” spiritual disciplines

1 Timothy 6:11-14 “But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing,”

Right starting point: Right belief must originate in our hearts, b/c that’s where God looks

1 Samuel 16:7 “But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.””

Romans 10:9–10 “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

Our belief begins with seeing God clearly, then seeing ourselves clearly (youth camp recap):

This belief results in the faith needed and the faith Jesus is after—faith in Him and Him alone

III. (v.21) The Power Necessary for the Remission of Sins

Luke 5:21 “And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?””

(CONTEXT)—

The Bible clearly states that the power necessary to forgive sins is found in God and God alone; we find this all through the O/T:

The Pharisees (religionists) were aware of this, however, we find them sitting amongst themselves, reasoning in their minds that Jesus was guilty of blasphemy (which means to slander or speak ill of God; to possess no love of/for God). Why?

Remember, are religionists; and while a religionist may recognize God’s power to forgive sins, they will fail to connect Jesus Christ with the same truth. Why?

(FIRST) Because religionists fail to see Jesus Christ as the Son of God, He was/is One with God—who is God.

(SECOND) Because religionists desired to see the Messiah on an earthly throne, establishing and earthly kingdom

(THIRD) Because religionists will always be centered on a works based faith, that God forgives sins based on what “man” does, rather than what Christ has done.

The Pharisees then, b/c of the misguided lens in which they saw God, Jesus, and themselves, refused to believe that Christ had the power to forgive sin, therefore they rejected Him and blasphemed Him.

***If a person cannot accept and believe that Jesus Christ is the Incarnate Word of God—God in the flesh—Who is the only way to God—the best they have is faith of transactional living, but they will lack forgiveness of sins—and that’s an eternal consequence**

IV. (v.22-26) Our belief is not in vain—b/c Jesus has proven He can forgive sin

Luke 5:22–26 “But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, He answered and said to them, “Why are you reasoning in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise up and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the man who was paralyzed, “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” Immediately he rose up before them, took up what he had been lying on, and departed to his own house, glorifying God. And they were all amazed, and they glorified God and were filled with fear, saying, “We have seen strange things today!””

(CONTEXT)

Again, Jesus knew the thoughts of the religionists—He read their minds and then gave evidence/proof of His deity:

His Word and the fact that it works proves His deity. In posing a test of God’s power, He suggested that He merely speak the word, “Rise up and walk.”

If His Word worked to heal the man—then His Word to forgive sins must work also.

His claim proved His deity. In this, He was not afraid to put Himself to the test as the Son of Man

Jesus refers to Himself as the, “Son of Man,” some 80 times in the gospels (it was His favorite term)

This term refers to Jesus as the Ideal Man, the Representative Man, and the Perfect Man; He is the embodiment and Pattern that every man should be

This term also refers to Jesus as the Ideal Servant of man; it stresses His

Sympathy for the poor and broken-hearted

Compassion for the captive, the blind, the bruised, and the outcast

His power proved His deity. Jesus spoke the Word and the man arose

God’s Word proved itself—that when Jesus spoke the word of healing, the man was healed.

His healing was immediate

God’s Word proved itself—that when Jesus spoke the word of forgiveness, the man was forgiven

His forgiveness was immediate

His impact proved His deity

The man glorified God

The people were amazed

The people were stricken with fear (awe and reverance)

(CONNECTION—WORSHIP/CLOSING)

There are two “groups” of people here: One group refuses to Jesus Christ through the right lens and the other is choosing to see Jesus Christ through the right lens

Seeing Christ through the right lens is seeing Him through the Word, not what the world or others have made Him out to be:

Seeing Christ through the right lens grows our awareness in two areas:

His holiness and our sinfulness

Seeing this creates a gap b/t His holiness and our sinfulness and no amount of pretending or performing can bridge this gap

What bridges the gap is the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ

The moment we see God and ourselves clearly, faith ignites and what will continue to bridge the gap is the cross…It’s all about the cross

A group of Pharisees refused to see Christ through the right lens and remained paralyzed in their sin

A group of five friends boldly and persistently chose to see Christ through the right lens, which led to a man’s sins being forgiven and his legs brought back to life

Which group are you in?